1 of 5
Map courtesy of the Stoa Group
The Stoa Group plans to develop 289 apartments in a development to be called The Heights at Inverness, as well as 18,000 square feet of retail space and 15,000 square feet of restaurant space next to the Inverness Center North office buildings in Hoover, Alabama. The 24-adre area is shown in red next to the city of Hoover's disc golf course.
2 of 5
Image courtesy of city of Hoover
A Louisiana-based development company called the Stoa Group is asking the city of Hoover to rezone 24 acres in the Inverness Center North office park to accommodate 289 apartments and some restaurant and retail space along Inverness Center Parkway. The apartment buildings are to the left, and the restaurant and retail space is shown along the parkway.
3 of 5
Image courtesy of city of Hoover
A Louisiana-based development company called the Stoa Group is asking the city of Hoover to rezone 24 acres in the Inverness Center North office park to accommodate 289 apartments and some restaurant and retail space along Inverness Center Parkway. The proposed apartment complex would be called The Heights at Inverness.
4 of 5
Image courtesy of city of Hoover
A Louisiana-based development company called the Stoa Group is asking the city of Hoover to rezone 24 acres in the Inverness Center North office park to accommodate 289 apartments and some restaurant and retail space along Inverness Center Parkway. The proposed apartment complex would be called The Heights at Inverness.
5 of 5
Image courtesy of city of Hoover
A Louisiana-based development company called the Stoa Group is asking the city of Hoover to rezone 24 acres in the Inverness Center North office park to accommodate 289 apartments and some restaurant and retail space along Inverness Center Parkway. The proposed apartment complex would be called The Heights at Inverness.
The Hoover City Council on Monday night voted 4-3 to rezone about 40% of the Inverness Center North office park (24 acres) to accommodate 289 new apartments, 18,000 square feet of retail space and 15,000 square feet of restaurant space.
A Louisiana-based development company called the Stoa Group wants to develop a four-story apartment complex called The Heights at Inverness on 15 vacant acres next to the three roughly 150,000-square-foot office buildings in the park, plus new restaurant and retail space along Inverness Center Parkway.
Some nearby residents said they liked parts of the proposal but have some concerns. Others opposed the plan, noting particularly concerns about increased traffic or a desire for less dense housing options.
Randy Thomas, executive president for NAI Chase Commercial, the leasing agent for the owner of the office park, In-Rel Properties, said the whole idea is to help rejuvenate the Inverness Center North office park, which has sat mostly vacant since Southern Company Services vacated its three office buildings there around 2017 to move to the Colonnade.
When In-Rel Properties purchased this property a little over a year ago, “the buildings we purchased were desecrated,” Thomas said.
The new owner has invested more than $4 million in the property in renovations and signed six tenants who take up 95% of Building 44, he said.
“We’re starting to see activity because we’re being aggressive, but we need a place for these young professionals to live,” Thomas said.
In-Rel Properties and NAI Chase Commercial decided they want to make Inverness Center North into a mixed-use center that blends the office space with residential and retail options, but they need it to be a high-end, high-quality development to make it work, he said.
Image courtesy of city of Hoover
A Louisiana-based development company called the Stoa Group is asking the city of Hoover to rezone 24 acres in the Inverness Center North office park to accommodate 289 apartments and some restaurant and retail space along Inverness Center Parkway. The apartment buildings are to the left, and the restaurant and retail space is shown along the parkway.
They decided to convert vacant land that originally had been slated for a fourth office building into space for apartments, restaurants and community retail stores and brought in the Stoa Group to do it.
“We want to see a spark in Inverness that hasn’t been there since the ‘80s,” Thomas said. “Nobody likes apartments. It’s a dirty word in today’s development world, … but if you do it right and you get something in there that the neighborhood can be proud of and the neighborhood can utilize the retail component, you’ve got something successful.”
Prescott Bailey, development director for the Stoa Group, said the plan is for 92% of the apartments to have one or two bedrooms with one-bedroom rents starting at about $1,800 a month. The target market is young professionals who want to live close to their offices and have restaurants and neighborhood retail within walking distance and empty nesters who are looking for simple living arrangements without having to worry about keeping up a yard, Bailey said.
Tenants who are looking for office space are asking for these kinds of options because their employees want to be able to walk to lunch or a nearby shop instead of having to get in a car and drive, he said.
Because of the target market, the apartments likely won’t draw a lot of school-age children, but Hoover school officials have told the developer they have capacity for more children in schools in eastern Hoover anyway, Bailey said.
Image courtesy of city of Hoover
A Louisiana-based development company called the Stoa Group is asking the city of Hoover to rezone 24 acres in the Inverness Center North office park to accommodate 289 apartments and some restaurant and retail space along Inverness Center Parkway. The proposed apartment complex would be called The Heights at Inverness.
Van Sykes, a resident of the nearby Inverness Point community, said he’s concerned an apartment development will add too much traffic. A traffic engineer for the developer said his company studied likely traffic patterns at three intersections and determined that, while there will be additional cars that aren’t there now, the level of service for all three of those intersections would not change as a result of the apartments.
The original plans called for a fourth office building, so the apartments actually will generate less traffic than the office building would have, the traffic engineer said. The Stoa Group has agreed to add a left turn lane on Inverness Center Parkway to better handle the expected traffic, he said.
Mitzi Eaker, a resident of Inverness for 19 years, said there are already a lot of other apartment complexes in the nearby area. She doesn’t believe more apartments are needed and would rather see residential options that will bring more families with school-age children so Spain Park High School can rise back up to Class 7A in sports, she said.
Councilman Casey Middlebrooks asked the developer if townhouses would be an acceptable alternative, and Bailey said with the amount of land there, townhomes do not work from an economic standpoint. The engineer also noted that there are old underground mines on the property, so townhomes would not be a good alternative from an engineering standpoint either.
Amie Perkins, another Inverness resident, said she believes more apartments would change the whole nature of Inverness. Bailey said he doesn’t believe that will be the case because his company plans to preserve tree buffers and people probably won’t be able to see the apartments from Inverness Center Parkway. Also, the apartments actually will back up to the Target store and not bump up against other neighborhoods, he said.
Council members Khristi Driver, John Lyda, Derrick Murphy and Curt Posey voted in favor of the zoning changes, while Councilmen Steve McClinton, Casey Middlebrooks and Sam Swiney voted against the zoning changes.
See other actions taken at Monday night's City Council meeting here, and see the video from the council meeting on The Hoover Channel's YouTube page.
